Tribal Youth Engagement

Tribal Youth Engagement (TYE) provides place-based opportunities for Indigenous youth from park affiliated tribes  to connect with nature and cultural history through outdoor experiences and career training.

Initiatives

Tribal Community Engagement Fellowship

The Tribal Community Engagement Fellowship supports one emerging Indigenous leader to strengthen relationships between Tribal communities and Grand Teton National Park. The fellow plays a key role in engaging Indigenous youth and families, supporting culturally grounded education programs, fostering cross-tribal collaboration, and ensuring Indigenous knowledge and representation are present across park programming. Through outreach, facilitation, and partnership-building, the fellowship helps create more inclusive and meaningful connections to natural landscapes.  

Initiatives

Indigenous Ground Leaders

Indigenous Ground Leaders (IGL) is a youth leadership program designed with and for park-affiliated Tribal communities that centers Indigenous voices and ways of knowing. The program creates supportive spaces for young people to connect with their ancestral homelands, learn from Tribal mentors, and build skills in leadership, environmental stewardship, outdoor recreation, and career exploration—fostering confidence, community, and a lasting relationship with public lands.

Collectively, these initiatives reflect a commitment to meaningfully engaging Indigenous youth from the park’s 26 affiliated tribes in Grand Teton National Park through outdoor exploration, cultural learning, and career training—resulting in the following measurable impacts across Grand Teton National Park: 

28

Cultural lessons

63

Hands-on educational experiences

196

Youths engaged

205

Nights spent camping

338

Miles explored on foot